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After our ghost town adventure in Ballarat, we began our grand detour and made our way to Rachel, Nevada. We arrived at the Little Ale’Inn later that afternoon, with no further delays or road closures. The Little Ale’Inn offers free tent camping on their property as well as several RV hook ups and a few mobile guest trailers that they rent out daily. This was my third time camping there whilst road tripping. I had the pleasure of chatting with an old timer Marine who had a Pharaoh’s horses tattoo he had gotten from Singapore Slim in Anchorage, Alaska in 1961.

We witnessed no UFO activity coming from the base while camping that night 😦 . The following morning, we packed up camp, had a good breakfast at the Inn, then headed 20 miles further down Route 375 to the Black mailbox.

My last blog post left me in Las Vegas, waiting for my friend, Sammy, to arrive. The following day he and I headed out to San Diego, by way of the Mojave National Preserve. We were going to San Diego to visit a tattoo shop, Tahiti Felix’s Master Tattoo, owned and operated by my friend, Gil. Unfortunately, the ride from Vegas took longer than expected and we didn’t arrive until late in the evening. The shop was closing, but we were able to get a quick tour and chat with Gil for a few.

From the shop, we rode south to Imperial Beach and grabbed a hotel for the night. The next day we took a quick buzz past the Mexican/US border, then headed north. Our destination was Rachel, Nevada, by way of Death Valley. Our plan was to ride to Death Valley and camp, then make it to The Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel the day after. The Little A’Le’Inn is in the movie “Paul“. It’s on the outskirts of the Nellis Air Force Range (commonly known as Area 51) on route 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway. It’s a nice little place with friendly people and free camping, which I discovered on last year’s road trip.

We were about 20 miles or so from Death Valley when the road we were on suddenly closed, apparently due to being washed away in a storm. This being the only road, our next course of action was to take a 150 mile detour, going back the way we came, then up and around the China Lake Naval Station. Since it was already dusk when we came across the barrier, our escape plan had to wait until the following day… and in true horror-movie fashion, there was nowhere to camp but the nearby ghost town of Ballarat. It was super creepy and a lot of fun and totally made our forthcoming detour worth it…. Sammy was scared shitless.

Sammy

Mojave National Preserve

Roys on old route 66

old US route 66 is now county road 66

Sunset near San Diego

US/Mexico border

Death Valley

Death Valley

Road Closed 😦

what’s left of the Ballarat post office, which was closed in 1917

Abandoned Winnie

killed this Camel spider making a b-line for my tent. fucker was fast!

Sunset over Ballarat, CA

Camping at Ballarat really peaked my interest in ghost towns. Do you have any recommendations for my next road trip?Please share your thoughts in the comment section!

Okay, moving onward. It’s still September. After I left Portland, I made my way down to Crater Lake, also in Oregon. I had to meet my buddy in Las Vegas in a few days and had some time to kill, and whats better to kill time than riding to a big crater filled with water. Actually, it was pretty amazing. From there, I rode down into California and over into Nevada. Enjoy!

Random bar bathroom in Portland

Mt Hood

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Crater Lake, Oregon

Chiloquin, Oregon

Motel I stayed at in Carson City, Nevada

Nevada

gas stop in middle of nowhere, Nevada

just goes to show ya, even in the middle of nowhere, you can’t escape road construction traffic

After I fixed my bike, which was an ignition solenoid problem, I was back on my way to Portland. I arrived at my buddy Jason’s place without further mechanical incident. Jason owns and operates Freaks and Geeks Tattoo in Portland. He was hosting a shop camping trip to Mt Hood for 3 days, for staff and friends, and I was lucky enough to be invited. It was a real good time.

As promised, I’m back with more road trip goodness. The following pics were taken in September, on the road from Red Deer to Portland, Oregon. Enjoy!

Stopped at this diner in Washington. Neat place, good burger.

Damn good burger!

roadside in Oregon

Roadside sunset, about an hour from Portland. Funny story; when I pulled over to take this pic, I couldn’t get my bike started afterwards and was stuck there on the side of the road for an hour and a half……ha

Happy New Year, folks! I’m back, after a long blogging hiatus. I have a lot of photos to share. My last post was while I was at Classic Tattoo in Red Deer, Alberta. I have since continued my ride around the US and am once again back home in sunny Florida. I have tons of photos, so I’m going to break them up into several posts. I’m thinking of doing one per day…..or per week, heheh. I’m going to start off this post with the rest of my Stay in Red Deer. Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

Hey all! Rode up to Saskatoon on my bike again. Took about a week to get here. Had to ride all the way to New Mexico and head north from there to avoid all the tornado turmoil in the midwest, so that added a few hundred miles to my trip. I did a bunch of camping on the way up, which was a lot of fun. Anyway, just incase you missed them on FaceBook or Instagram, haha, here’s some pics of that adventure. Enjoy!